Inspired by the city planning vision advanced by French architect Le Corbusier, Bauer published an article on his worker's apartments in suburban Paris.

[4] Returning to New York City in 1927, Bauer worked at a number of publishing houses, eventually collaborating with American urban critic Lewis Mumford beginning in the late 1920s.

After her marriage to San Francisco area architect William Wurster, whom she met while teaching at UC Berkeley in 1940, both withstood accusations of disloyalty by the Tenney Committee during the Red Scare of the 1950s.

Bauer Wurster contributed to the establishment of University of California, Berkeley's UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, contributed to the founding of the progressive architectural research group Telesis and served on the editorial board of the Telesis-affiliated publication, Task, a short-lived but influential architectural journal published during the 1940s.

An Oscar Stonorov bust of Wurster adorns the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building's Main (South) lobby in Washington DC.

[9][10] The UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design's Catherine Bauer Wurster Award for Social Practice was established to recognize alumni who have made significant contributions in their professions.